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Friday, August 10, 2007

Bush As Truman


 President Truman


I was sitting on the verandah with my dogs, Zoloft and Cymbalta, when my 3 nephews stopped by at tea time.

They wolfed down some Dare cookies and washed them all down with pints and pints of the Earl Grey kindly provided by the Grace Tea Company of NY. They then turned to reading what was left of the morning paper.
They chanced upon an article describing some hapless Republican wags likening George Bush to Harry Truman, ostensibly because both had low approval ratings at one time.

We wondered. Let's see.
George Bush is rich. Harry was not.
George is a Republican. Harry was a Democrat. Not much there.
Harry Truman had to fire a military genius in McArthur. George had flunkies run the war for 4 years.

My nephews mused. George Bush does indeed remind of some historical figure of that time, the 30s and 40s, but not Harry S Truman, they said. Who was it that started an illegal war? Who had intial success which soon turned to disaster? Who was it that thought he was in contact with supernatural forces, whether those forces be God or the Force of History? Who was it that thought that at the last minute when everything was falling down around him, he would be proved ultimately correct and victorious...just like his favorite Kings of Prussia??!!

 It wasn't Harry Truman. It wasn't even an American. When you open the door to historical parallels, look out!

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